Study says women hit harder by heart attacks

Women are less likely to get immediate treatment for a heart attack and more likely to die in the hospital, according to a new study that track more than 1.1 million patients.

The study found that women are less likely to get medical treatment because they don’t realize the seriousness of the situation, according to a USA Today story. The reason is 42 percent of women never experience the classic heart attack symptom of chest pain or pressure.

The study actually may underestimate the gender gap, because many female heart attacks never make it to the hospital, says Cam Patterson, chief of cardiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study.

Women are less likely to be properly treated, even when they have similar symptoms to men, according to the analysis in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association, which included patients from 1994 to 2006.

Women without chest pain can experience shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, light-headedness and pain in their back or jaw, according to the American Heart Association.